Fuel cells are useful for generating electricity based on an electrochemical reaction. Typical fuel cell power plants include a cell stack assembly (CSA) with a large number of cells adjacent each other. Each of the cells in the CSA includes multiple layers or components, such as an electrolyte membrane, gas diffusion layers and flow field layers or plates.
The typical process for manufacturing carbon-based fuel cell components includes hot pressing a carbon or graphite powder and a phenolic resin. The hot pressing step cures the resin and imparts strength to the material for further processing. A drawback to this approach is that the mold used for this step has to be heated up and then the mold and the molded component material has to be allowed to cool down. This introduces additional time and expense into the manufacturing process. Another aspect of this approach is that it requires carefully controlling temperature and pressure to achieve the desired characteristics of the component.